You’re this much closer to a unique and powerful brand story. Here’s mine.
I help mission-driven founders grow by clarifying their marketing strategy with a story that centers empathy and inclusion by using brand values, the founder’s journey, and customer insights to form a consistent and compelling message.
Why Stories Matter
I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for stories. They made me feel less alone as a neurodivergent, non-binary person struggling through domestic abuse and PTSD. Watching someone else's gender transition via social media was a lightbulb to help me better understand my own authentic identity. Whenever I've felt like giving up, my community has supported me and their stories have helped me heal by reminding me to keep going.
I founded Max Wilde Stories because stories have saved my life since I was 7 years old. They made me believe in a world of possibility, that things could get better when my own world was falling apart. They helped me see myself in others’ experiences.
My journey brought me from a decade in nursing, to tech consulting and training, to getting certified as a health coach. I wanted to start my own business and thought with my nursing background that pursuing health coaching was the best fit.
My problem was, I knew nothing about messaging even despite taking countless marketing courses. I kept creating content, networking, showing up live, and even went semi-viral once with one of my videos. But it was doing nothing for my business. In 8 months, I didn’t have a single client.
What I Believe
Authentic Stories – you’ll get no jetset, Instagram stories from me or my clients. No rags to riches or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. You get the hard and messy shit. No one’s journey is exactly the same, but we all benefit when someone decides to share their story. Especially the hard times when
Inclusive Ecosystem - No one is free until we all are. I believe that our creative work, our businesses, and our community organizations are helping us to build the world we want to live in. I use my own marketing work to ensure that people who are doing healing and transformative work reach more people and impact more lives. I am rooting for your success whether or not you decide to work with me.
Empathy-driven Copy - There are a lot of experts who will tell you the best (or only) way to sell your products or services is to agitate pain and trigger shame in your ideal customers or clients. This is bullshit and it’s not a good way to start a working relationship. Marketing should be trauma aware and should build a sense of connection with customers instead of assuming that we know what is best for them and their situations.
What I Do
As your storyteller, I’m a synthesist, a witness, and a guide that takes your words (and that of your clients) and transmutes them into concise, engaging content that gets your ideal clients nodding along with you. My favorite part about my work is when, through our conversation, we uncover how your work is transformative in such a clear way that you’re now ignited and excited about your marketing.
I see the parallels between genres of writing and go out of my way to evoke emotion in my copywriting. Clients and stakeholders have told me how their copy made them feel seen and validated. Being a nurse has allowed me to tune into the human condition in a unique way that other marketers and copywriters can’t. Because of this background, I like to affirm where they’re at and use validation instead of persuasion.
How I Approach Marketing & Content Strategy
I use copywriting and marketing strategies that are rooted in justice and empathy without feeling uneasy or manipulative. I specialize in messaging, content strategy/creation and website copywriting that makes you feel excited about how you’re showing up online and gives you the concrete action steps you need to make it happen (or I take it off of your plate completely).
I approach messaging, often murky and vague, with a signature framework I call Story Alchemy. The process transmutes an organization's mission, values, experiences, and purpose into evocative copy and a customer journey that engages ideal customers into brand advocates.
My nursing, community health, and corporate training background inform my business. My focus is on the psychology of what makes complex concepts engaging for people.
What Led Me Here
For the last decade, I’ve been a nurse in differing capacities. When I worked with Cerner Corporation, I trained physicians and hospitals on how to use its electronic health software. A significant part of my previous career consisted of taking complex, highly technical subjects and breaking them down in a straightforward and concise way to help people make an informed decision or take action.
Sound familiar? Yeah, me too. While you’d never think that, nursing and marketing have a lot of similarities.
While I enjoyed this aspect of my career, it became obvious to me that working as a nurse was not where I saw myself in five or ten years. My first foray into online business was getting my certification as a health coach. Through that, I met wonderful conscious business owners through the mastermind, Sweet Spot Strategy. It was meeting and collaborating with my cohort that I realized what my true love was– helping transformative service providers share their message and impact more people.
In 2018, my storytelling business was born. I worked primarily worked with healthcare and wellness businesses due to my background.
This means that I’ve made a lot of detours for you to learn from all stemming from my own deep need to impact others’ lives.
You don’t have to try to figure everything out on your own. Your marketing can further your impact and connect with folks you’re excited to work with.
Education + Lineage
Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Colorado State University
Specializing in Nonprofit Fundraising
Small Business Development Program 2023 Alumni, The Porter House KC
Google Analytics Certification
Licensed Practical Nurse, Pinellas Technical College
Certified Health Coach, National Society of Health Coaches
Sweet Spot Strategy Alumni, Racheal Cook MBA
Feminist Marketing Workshop Series, Kelly Diels
Lindsay Mack, Heart of Service
Copyhackers/Joanna Wiebe-Bain, Copy School
Inbound Marketing Certifications, Hubspot
Still Have Questions?
Schedule a no-pressure, 20 min chat if you’re interested in working together. I can answer any lingering concerns or help you decide if we’re a good fit or what package best fits your marketing needs.